I'm Andy Warren, currently a SQL Server trainer with End to End Training. Over the past few years I've been a developer, DBA, and IT Director. I was one of the original founders of SQLServerCentral.com and helped grow that community from zero to about 300k members before deciding to move on to other ventures.

The school my daughter attends gives each student a workbook type thing at the beginning of each year, and it travels back and forth between school and home with them each day. It contains homework assignments, trip notices, and whatever else might be going on for that day/week. It also has an area where the teacher circles one of four colors to indicate how the student did that day.

Green is good, yellow indicates maybe being a little talkative, orange is acting up quite a bid, and red is in the danger zone. It’s a simple system, and let’s me easily understand each day how my daughter is doing. I ask her “what color were you on today” and she knows if it wasn’t green she will have to explain why, and if she was on yellow that she will need to try extra hard the following day to be on green.

It works, and it’s far better than waiting for a call from the teacher, or to get a progress report. It also matches what I like to do in the real world, win one day at a time. It’s easy to get off track when you report status weekly or monthly,but when you post status every day,it makes you think – and try harder the next day – when you’re getting off track.